Metal coil propeller shaft seal for watercrafts including deep dive vessels

ABSTRACT

A propeller shaft seal for sealing a propeller shaft in a stern tube, comprising a bi-direction rotational sealing body being fitted within the stern tube and wrapped around the propeller shaft in its axial direction; wherein the bi-direction rotational sealing body comprising two metallic helical coils stacking together in a way that is mirroring each other; wherein the first and second metallic helical coils being constructed from helically coiled metal tapes of varying widths linked together and coiled into rings and with the rings tightly bounded; and wherein at any one time during operation, a rotational direction of the propeller shaft is same as coiling direction of one of the two metallic helical coils but opposite to that of the other of the two metallic helical coils.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material,which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

CLAIM FOR FOREIGN PRIORITY

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 to the KoreaPatent Application No. 20-2012-0003965, filed May 14, 2012, thedisclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to the Korea Patent No. 100688250, filedApr. 7, 2006 and issued Feb. 22, 2007, the disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The presently claimed invention relates generally to the mechanics ofpropellers in watercrafts including sea surface vessels and deep divesea vessels.

BACKGROUND

The propeller of a vessel has a shaft extended from the engine at oneend and penetrates the body of the vessel at the other end, protrudingout of the vessel body. From the difference in pressure between theinside of the vessel and the outside water which the vessel is submergedwithin, and from the forward thrusting force generated from the rotationof the propeller, a mechanism preventing water incursion through the gapin between the propeller shaft and the vessel hull at the propellershaft-vessel body penetration point is required.

The presently claimed invention provides an apparatus that is apropeller shaft seal for completely preventing water incursion throughthe gap existing around the propeller shaft at the propellershaft-vessel body penetration.

The traditional method of preventing water incursion through the gapbetween the hull and the propeller shaft of a vessel is described asfollows. First, a stern tube is fixed in the hull of the vessel. Then, apipe called stern tube bearing is installed inside the stern tube. Thepropeller shaft is inserted into the stern tube bearing prior to use.The propeller shaft and the stern tube bearing have lengths of more thanthree times the diameter of the propeller shaft. The sealing function isachieved by extending the route of incurred water flowing into the gapbetween the stern tube and the propeller shaft. The resistive forceagainst the incurred water flow reinforces the sealing function.Lubricant is forcefully injected into the gap, mixing with the flow ofthe incurred water flowing through the pipe for providing cooling andlubricating functions. Lip seals are inserted into both ends of thestern tube bearing in layers to prevent the lubricant and the incurredwater overflowing into inside of the vessel. Lastly, the mixture of theincurred water and the lubricant is collected in a container and thelubricant is recycled after separating the lubricant from the incurredwater using an oil-water separator.

The abovementioned traditional method is used because there has not beenbetter sealing device that can be used for sealing propeller shafts invessels. Moreover, such traditional propeller shaft sealing method isinadequate for use in deepwater diving vessels. First, the rubber-madelip seals are inappropriate for vessels sailing in cold waters due tothe effect of rubber embrittlement that causes fractures. Thus, themechanical strength and sealing performance of the lip seals decreaseunder extreme low and high temperatures. Second, the rubber-made lipseals are also inappropriate for deepwater dives due extrusion at highpressure that causes fractures. Furthermore, as stern tube bearings arenot of a rolling type but of a sliding type, they feature high frictionloss and short lifecycles, along with a host of other shortcomings, suchas high maintenance cost, large lubricant consumption, etc.

Underwater pressure increases by one bar for every ten-meter incrementin water depth in either ocean or fresh water bodies. For militarysubmarines and industrial submarines, a considerable amount ofresearches has been conducted addressing issues on rotational sealing ofpropeller shafts. These researches are in line with the technologicaldevelopment in increasing the strength of vessel hulls with the goal ofenabling deeper and deeper submarine dives.

One of the issues on rotational sealing of propeller shafts is that thesynthetic resin lip seals lose their sealing functions at temperaturesbelow −30° C., such as those within the Arctic Circle, due to loss ofelasticity. Overtime under the exposure of extreme low temperature, thesynthetic resin lip seals break into small pieces and fall apart fromthe propeller shafts. This issue has become more profound recently as asignificant volume of ice has been lost, making new shipping routesthrough the Arctic Circle possible.

Another issue is that many diverse types of minerals, which can be foundin coastal areas and continental shelves, are spread across theseafloors at different depths ranging from 200 to 2000 meters below sealevel. Some of these minerals are exposed on the seafloor surfaces as inthe case of manganese nodules. Some others can be found by digginglightly into the seafloor as in the case of methane-hydrate, which isalso dubbed “burning ice”. For these reasons, the perfect sealing ofpropeller shafts has become the utmost important technological pursuitin the marine industry.

There is one propeller shaft sealing device that is based on arotational sealing technique described in the Korea Patent No.100688250. One embodiment of this propeller shaft sealing device is ametallic tube made of helically coiled metal tapes and is designed toseal rotating bodies using metallic points with rubber-like radialflexibility. This propeller shaft sealing device achieves perfectsealing performance even in deepwater dives and in low temperaturewaters, such as those in the Arctic Circle.

One drawback of the technology described in the Korea Patent No.100688250 is that the intended use of implemented sealing device isdetermined by the rotational sealing direction: clockwise orcounter-clockwise. It is because the nature of helical coiling duringthe manufacturing process, the sealing function is enabled only for asingle rotational direction of the sealing device according to thecoiling direction. This limits the application of this technology torotational machineries that do not reverse rotational directionsfrequently.

SUMMARY

It is an objective of the presently claimed invention to provide adesign of propeller shaft sealing device that can be used in vesselsunder a wide range of water temperature, depth, and pressure. It is afurther objective of the presently claimed invention to provide suchdesign of propeller shaft sealing device having a rotational sealingfunction for both clockwise or counter-clockwise rotational directionsin a single structural implementation. In another word, it is a furtherobjective of the presently claimed invention to provide such design ofpropeller shaft sealing device that can seal the propeller shaft duringthe forward and reverse drives of the vessel.

In accordance to one embodiment of the presently claimed invention, apropeller shaft sealing device comprises of two sealing devices that arebased on a rotational sealing technique described in the Korea PatentNo. 100688250; wherein the two sealing devices being arranged to faceeach other. In implementation, a double-sized single propeller shaftsealing device amalgamated by two identical propeller shaft sealingdevices facing each other.

A single metallic rotational sealing device that can be used for bothrotational directions, coupled with zero-leakage sealing performance attemperatures ranging from −220 to 550° C., and at a maximum pressure of500 bar, can be in a wide range of industrial applications besidepropeller sealing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the invention are described in more detail hereinafterwith reference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows the illustration of the structural principles of a shaftseal designed in accordance to the rotational sealing techniquedescribed in the Korea Patent No. 100688250;

FIG. 2 shows the cross-sectional view of a shaft seal designed inaccordance to the rotational sealing technique described in the KoreaPatent No. 100688250;

FIG. 3 shows the cross-sectional view of an exemplary machine with ashaft in a tube or cylinder installed with a shaft seal designed inaccordance to the rotational sealing technique described in the KoreaPatent No. 100688250;

FIG. 4 shows the cross-sectional view of an exemplary machine withrotational shaft in a tube installed with a propeller shaft sealdesigned in accordance to one embodiment of the presently claimedinvention;

FIG. 5 shows the cross-sectional view of an exemplary propeller shaft ina stern tube installed with a propeller shaft seal designed inaccordance to one embodiment of the presently claimed invention; and

FIG. 6 shows the cross-sectional view of an exemplary propeller shaft ina stern tube installed with a conventional stern tube bearing.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, designs of metal coil propeller shaft sealare set forth as preferred examples. It will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art that modifications, including additions and/orsubstitutions may be made without departing from the scope and spirit ofthe invention. Specific details may be omitted so as not to obscure theinvention; however, the disclosure is written to enable one skilled inthe art to practice the teachings herein without undue experimentation.

FIG. 1. shows an embodiment of a metallic helical coil that can be usedin the construction of a propeller shaft seal. In this embodiment, atube 02 made of one or more helically coiled metal tapes 01 havingradial elasticity equivalent to that of synthetic resin. The helicallycoiled metal tapes 01 are linked together and coiled into rings and withthe rings tightly bounded into an elongated tube or a helical coil 02.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of a metallic helical coil seal for sealing ashaft in a cylinder or tube constructed from helically coiled metaltapes of varying widths, in turn creating helical coil rings of varyinginner and outer diameters. The varying inner diameters and outerdiameters of the helical coil rings make up a shaft-contacting circle03, a non-contacting-shaft circle 04, a cylinder-contacting circle 06,and a non-contacting-cylinder circle 05 respectively, completing theindependent elastic sealing device 07.

Referring to FIG. 2. The helical coil is fitted within the cylinder ortube and wrapped around a shaft in its axial direction. The innerdiameter edges of the top helical coil rings stays in proximate contactwith the shaft at all time, forming the shaft-contacting circle 03. Theouter diameter edges of the top helical coil rings stays out of contactwith the cylinder surfaces under all circumstances due to the fact thatthe outer diameter edges of the top rings, which are used as theshaft-contacting circle, become the non-contacting-cylinder circle 05.As a result, the layers composed of the top helical coil rings undersuch conditions become shaft-sealing layers.

Still referring to FIG. 2. The inner diameter edges of the bottomhelical coil rings stay out of contact with the shaft under allcircumstances, forming the non-contacting-shaft circle 04. The outerdiameter edges of the bottom helical coil rings stay in proximatecontact with the cylinder surfaces at all time forming thecylinder-contacting circle 06. As a result, the layers composed of thebottom helical coil rings under such conditions become cylinder-sealinglayers.

In addition, in the continuous coiling of the helically coiled metaltapes, as the top helical coil rings turn into the bottom helical coilrings, the transitional rings in between the non-contacting-cylindercircle 05 and the non-contacting-shaft circle 04 remain in a floatingcondition in which both the outer diameter edges and inner diameteredges of the transitional ring are not in contact with the shaft orcylinder. The layers composed of the transitional helical coil undersuch conditions serve as displacement absorption layers. Suchdisplacement absorption layers gradually wear out whenever the sealinglayers abutting on the left and right sides of the displacementabsorption layers are used in preventing leakage by absorbingdisplacements caused by mechanical vibrations.

Therefore, these three layers each with an independent function areconstructed into a single structure as the independent elastic sealingdevice 07.

FIG. 3 shows the cut out view of a completed machine unit by assemblingthe sealing device of Korea Patent No. 100688250 into the machine unit.An independent elastic sealing device 07 is assembled inside of acylinder 09. FIG. 3 shows that the cylinder-sealing circle 06 iscontacting the inner wall of the cylinder 09 and the shaft-contactingcircle 03 is contacting the surface of the shaft 08 and those twofloating circles, the shaft-non-contacting circle 04 and thecylinder-non-contacting circle 05 are shown kept away from both cylinderwall and shaft surface without any contacting.

A compression ring 15 has a number of small holes along the ring edge.Small compression springs 14 are inserted in each hole on thecompression ring 15 to apply compression force on the independentelastic sealing device 07 to its axis direction to keep all the rings betightly contacted each other to block leak between the rings in theindependent elastic sealing device 07. Two stop rings 10 and 11 areinstalled to determine the location of the independent elastic sealingdevice 07 in the cylinder 09 and two protective rings are also installedto protect the independent elastic sealing device 07.

In this embodiment, Chamber 16 side is high pressure side and thechamber 17 side is low pressure side in this structure.

If the helical coil 02 in the FIG. 3 is wound in the right hand(clockwise) direction and if the shaft 08 starts to rotate in the sameright hand (clockwise) direction, the helical coil 02 will wind up onthe shaft 08 and hold the shaft 08 by the friction between helical coil02 and the shaft 08 causing band break effect and stopping the shaft 08from rotating at same time. If the helical coil 02 in the FIG. 3 iswound in the right hand (clockwise) direction as before but if the shaft08 starts to rotate in the left hand (counter-clockwise) direction,which is the reverse direction of the coil winding, the helical coil 02cannot wind up on the shaft 08 because the diameter of the helical coil02 will be enlarged by the expansion of the wound diameter by thefriction between the helical coil 02 and the shaft 08. The helical coil02 and the shaft 08 cannot stay in contact forever as long as the shaft08 keeps rotating in the reverse direction of the coil winding becausethe frictional force between the helical coil 02 and the shaft 08spreads and pushes outward the wound up coil such that it cannot remainin contact with the shaft surface. The clearance between the helicalcoil 02 and shaft 08 maintains a fraction of thousandth of a millimeteras the wound up coil spring bounces back to its freestanding conditionwithin millionths of a second after it is pushed outward by thefrictional force. This extremely fine clearance between rotating shaftand the static coil provides the basic foundation of dynamic rotaryseal. In other words, the extremely fine clearance that exists betweenthe helical coil spring and the rotating shaft makes it possible to havea dynamic rotary seal. Moreover, this seal is composed of multiple ringlayers and even though there could be minor leak on first layer, thereare layers after layers that will block leaking as a failsafe, making anabsolute-zero-leak-seal by multiple sealing layers.

However, the sealing device of Korea Patent No. 100688250 has a fataldrawback that it is usable only as one direction rotary seal, either aclockwise or counter-clockwise dynamic seal according to the directionof wound up coil in either right hand or left hand winding. The problemof such a crippled half function can clearly be solved by the presentlyclaimed invention, by putting two same uni-directional rotary seals,either both clockwise or counter clockwise dynamic seals together inplace of the single one. Two devices are set in tandem arrangement instructure, but their appearance must be shaped as mirror reflectingshape. In other words, two identical devices are constructed into oneand structured as tail-head-tail sequence, which looks like two tails ina mirror reflected in location while head at the mirror center line.When the helical coil dynamic seal is constructed into tandemarrangement and in mirror reflecting arrangement, the five layers shallbe in the sequence of cylinder-seal layer, absorption layer, shaft-seallayer, absorption layer, and cylinder-seal layer. In any helical coilthe flow direction of two ends of a coil observed from one end isreverse direction. In other words if the flowing direction is observedat one end as right hand winding, then the flow direction of oppositeend observed at the first observation end is left hand direction. Amongthe abovementioned five layers, if the first layer is a cylinder-seallayer, which acts as the band brake for the clockwise rotation of theseal, the fifth layer is a cylinder-seal layer, which acts as the bandbrake for counter-clockwise rotation of the seal, the third layer is ashaft-seal layer at the center position, which can function as abi-direction seal as it has both clockwise and counter-clockwise bandbrake on both ends of the seal assembly.

Referring to FIG. 4. FIG. 4 shows the cross-sectional view of anexemplary machine with a shaft in a cylinder installed with a shaft sealhaving a bi-direction rotational sealing body comprising two metallichelical coils stacking and mirroring each other. The shaft-contactingcircle 26 is in contact with the surface of the shaft 18, and the twodivided cylinder-contacting circles 29 and 31 remain in contact with theinner surfaces of the cylinder 19. The non-contacting-shaft circle 28and the non-contacting-cylinder circle 30 remain in floating conditionsand do not come into contact with the shaft or the cylinder surfaceunder any circumstance.

Two stop rings 20 and 21 are installed inside the cylinder 09 to fix theinstallation position of the bi-direction rotational sealing body 32 ofthe shaft seal. Two protective rings 22 and 23 are installed to protectthe bi-direction rotational sealing body 32 of the shaft seal.

A compression ring 25 having a number of orifices for securingcompression springs 24 compresses, by the force of the compressionsprings 24 in the axial direction, the bi-direction rotational sealingbody 32 of the shaft seal to ensure the helical coil rings comprisingthe bi-direction rotational sealing body 32 of the shaft seal to betightly bound with each other. This prevents any possible leakage fromthe gap between the rings.

FIG. 5 shows the cross-sectional view of an exemplary propeller shaft ina stern tube installed with a propeller shaft seal having a bi-directionrotational sealing body comprising two metallic helical coils stackingand mirroring each other. Referring to FIG. 5. The mounting plate 41installed on the outer side of the stern tube of a vessel 36 is designedto be detachable for repairs. The bi-direction rotational sealing body32 can be separated from the hull when needed—in the event of anemergency for example.

FIG. 6 shows the cross-sectional view of an exemplary propeller shaft ina stern tube installed with a conventional stern tube bearing. Referringto FIG. 6. The stern tube 43 is installed inside the hull 42. The sterntube bearing 44 is temporarily installed inside the stern tube 43. Thepropeller shaft 46 is installed inside the stern tube bearing 44,penetrates the hull 42, and protrudes out of the vessel. The propeller47, which generates thrust that pushes forward the vessel when rotatingin water, is installed at the end of the propeller shaft 46. Thelubricant inlet pipe 49 and the lubricant outlet pipe 51 are installedin such a way connecting the stern tube 43 and the stern tube bearing44. Lubricant is supplied via the lubricant inlet pipe 49 in thedirection of arrow 51, flown through the stern tube bearing 44, and iscollected via the lubricant outlet pipe 51 in the direction of arrow 52.The collected lubricant is recycled using a regeneration facility.Multi-folded lip seals 45 are installed on both ends of the stern tubebearings 44 inside the stern tube 43 in order to prevent any lubricantleakage from the stern tube 43.

The foregoing description of the present invention has been provided forthe purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed.Many modifications and variations will be apparent to the practitionerskilled in the art.

The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the invention and its practical application, therebyenabling others skilled in the art to understand the invention forvarious embodiments and with various modifications that are suited tothe particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of theinvention be defined by the following claims and their equivalence.

What is claimed is:
 1. A propeller shaft seal for sealing a propellershaft in a stern tube, comprising: a bi-direction rotational sealingbody being fitted within the stern tube and wrapped around the propellershaft in an axial direction of the propeller shaft; wherein thebi-direction rotational sealing body comprising a first and a secondmetallic helical coils stacking together in a way that is mirroring eachother; wherein the stacked first and second metallic helical coils beingconstructed from helically coiled metal tapes of varying widths linkedtogether and coiled into rings and with the rings tightly bounded;wherein the rings in the stacked first and second metallic helical coilshaving varying inner and outer diameters comprising, starting from oneend of the bi-direction rotational sealing body: a firstcylinder-sealing circle, wherein outer diameter edges of the one or morerings within the first cylinder-sealing circle stay in proximate contactwith wall of the stern tube; a first shaft-non-contacting circle; afirst cylinder-non-contacting circle; a shaft-contacting circle, whereininner diameter edges of the one or more rings forming theshaft-contacting circle stay in proximate contact with surface of thepropeller shaft; a second cylinder-non-contacting circle; a secondshaft-non-contacting circle; and a second cylinder-sealing circle,wherein outer diameter edges of the one or more rings within the secondcylinder-sealing circle stay in proximate contact with wall of the sterntube; wherein inner and outer diameter edges of the one or more ringsbetween the first cylinder-non-contacting circle and the firstshaft-non-contacting circle remain in a floating condition in which bothinner and outer diameter edges of the one or more rings between thefirst cylinder-non-contacting circle and the first shaft-non-contactingcircle stay out of contact with surface of the propeller shaft and wallof the stern tube; wherein inner and outer diameter edges of the one ormore rings between the second cylinder-non-contacting circle and thesecond shaft-non-contacting circle remain in a floating condition inwhich both inner and outer diameter edges of the one or more ringsbetween the second cylinder-non-contacting circle and the secondshaft-non-contacting circle stay out of contact with surface of thepropeller shaft and wall of the stern tube; wherein the one or morerings within the first cylinder-sealing circle form a firstcylinder-seal layer; the one or more rings between the firstcylinder-non-contacting circle and the first shaft-non-contacting circleform a first absorption layer; the one or more rings within theshaft-contacting circle form a shaft-seal layer; the one or more ringsbetween the second cylinder-non-contacting circle and the secondshaft-non-contacting circle form a second absorption layer; and the oneor more rings within the second cylinder-sealing circle form a secondcylinder-seal layer; and wherein at any one time during operation, arotational direction of the propeller shaft is same as coiling directionof one of the first and second metallic helical coils but opposite tothat of the other of the two metallic helical coils.
 2. A propellershaft seal for sealing a propeller shaft in a stern tube, comprising: abi-direction rotational sealing body being fitted within the stern tubeand wrapped around the propeller shaft in an axial direction of thepropeller shaft; wherein the bi-direction rotational sealing bodycomprising a first and a second metallic helical coils stacking togetherin a way that is mirroring each other; wherein the stacked first andsecond metallic helical coils being constructed from helically coiledmetal tapes of varying widths linked together and coiled into rings andwith the rings tightly bounded; wherein the rings in the stacked firstand second metallic helical coils having varying inner and outerdiameters comprising, starting from one end of the bi-directionrotational sealing body: a first shaft-contacting circle, wherein innerdiameter edges of the one or more rings forming the firstshaft-contacting circle stay in proximate contact with surface of thepropeller shaft; a first cylinder-non-contacting circle; a firstshaft-non-contacting circle; a cylinder-sealing circle, wherein outerdiameter edges of the one or more rings within the cylinder-sealingcircle stay in proximate contact with wall of the stern tube; a secondshaft-non-contacting circle; and a second cylinder-non-contactingcircle; a second shaft-contacting circle, wherein inner diameter edgesof the one or more rings forming the second shaft-contacting circle stayin proximate contact with surface of the propeller shaft; wherein innerand outer diameter edges of the one or more rings between the firstcylinder-non-contacting circle and the first shaft-non-contacting circleremain in a floating condition in which both inner and outer diameteredges of the one or more rings between the first cylinder-non-contactingcircle and the first shaft-non-contacting circle stay out of contactwith surface of the propeller shaft and wall of the stern tube; whereininner and outer diameter edges of the one or more rings between thesecond cylinder-non-contacting circle and the secondshaft-non-contacting circle remain in a floating condition in which bothinner and outer diameter edges of the one or more rings between thesecond cylinder-non-contacting circle and the secondshaft-non-contacting circle stay out of contact with surface of thepropeller shaft and wall of the stern tube; wherein the one or morerings within the first shaft-contacting circle form a first shaft-seallayer; the one or more rings between the first cylinder-non-contactingcircle and the first shaft-non-contacting circle form a first absorptionlayer; the one or more rings within the cylinder-sealing circle form acylinder-seal layer; the one or more rings between the secondcylinder-non-contacting circle and the second shaft-non-contactingcircle form a second absorption layer; and the one or more rings withinthe second shaft-contacting circle form a second shaft-seal layer; andwherein at any one time during operation, a rotational direction of thepropeller shaft is same as coiling direction of one of the first andsecond metallic helical coils but opposite to that of the other of thetwo metallic helical coils.